Archive for February 2016

What we must do to establish a regional identity….

Each year the California Department of Food and Agriculture publishes the Grape Crush Report. This report tabulates the California grape harvest in terms of total tonnage, price, and sugar concentration by cultivar and reporting district. The report should be required reading for anyone interested in growing and making wine. Last week, California released the preliminary…

French poet Paul Valéry observed, “that which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.” I like to call this Valéry’s law. I observed this law too frequently when I practiced science, and now I see it today in the popular belief that Livermore Valley is one of the oldest…